


hold the cone

by thepalebluedot



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, trader joe's au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25902217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepalebluedot/pseuds/thepalebluedot
Summary: Jason forgets his glasses and Reyna is wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
Relationships: Jason Grace/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31





	hold the cone

**Author's Note:**

> for the jeyna fan army <3

Jason is having trouble seeing. 

“Listen,” he says under his breath. “They’re new. You’re not used to wearing them or carrying them around yet.” 

He shifts his basket to his other hand and rubs his eyes. 

“You’ll get there,” he mumbles, “But today is not that day.” 

Besides, he’s used to squinting. It’s how he got by all these years. But after experiencing the world in full clarity, after not having to squint all the time, he really notices for the first time just how much it strains his eyes. He rubs them again and sighs. The price labels are readable, but this is his first time at a Trader Joe’s, and he’s been wandering around the store for far too long now because he can’t keep track of what is where or see clearly past four feet. 

He just needs to find the cereal, and then he can leave. 

He pauses again in the frozen section, noticing the ice cream, when someone taps him on the shoulder. 

He jumps, then stares. 

The Trader Joe’s employee who tapped him on the shoulder is the most beautiful person he’s ever seen, probably. Brown skin, dark hair and dark eyes, toned arms crossed across her chest. She’s wearing a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt with the Trader Joe’s logo on it that is somehow doing her favors. 

He realizes he’s been staring, then realizes she’s also been staring. His eyebrows twitch as he resists the urge to raise them and risk coming across as rude. 

The woman has no such hesitations. She raises an eyebrow at him, then points at her ear. 

Right, his headphones. There is music playing loudly in his ears. He can feel himself start to blush as he yanks them out. 

“Sorry,” he says. 

She nods, then says, “Just so you know, we close in ten minutes.” 

Jason blinks at her. Has he been here that long? 

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” He moves to put his headphones back in, but she doesn’t turn away. 

“Did you need help finding anything?” she says. 

Jason smiles politely. “No thank you.” 

She raises an eyebrow again and lets her arms fall to her sides. “Are you sure?”

Jason is somewhat taken aback. “Yes?” 

She sighs. “It’s just, I noticed when you came in, and you’ve been in here for a while wandering around.”

He’s definitely blushing now. “I still need cereal and forgot what aisle I saw it in,” he admits. 

She nods, turns around, and starts walking. He follows. 

She stops a few aisles down and points. “Down there.” 

Jason squints in the general direction she’s pointing, sees cereal box shaped items, and thanks her. Then, he hesitates. She’s just really, really good looking. 

“Did you need anymore help?” she asks, sounding mildly concerned. He’s reminded she’s at work. He smiles and shakes his head.

“No, thank you, though.” 

She nods and walks away. He sighs and walks down the aisle towards the cereal, where he picks the first one that sounds good because they close in ten minutes and he’s been here too long already. 

The pretty woman from a minute ago is by the registers, now. She’s speaking to a shorter, dark skinned girl with an afro who is in the middle of bagging someone else’s groceries. She notices him and walks the few steps over to her register, waving him over. 

He ducks his head as he places his basket on the little shelf, avoiding her eyes as he reaches for his wallet. 

“Find everything alright?” she says evenly. He looks up at her, unable to tell if she’s teasing. She stares back at him straight-faced as she scans his groceries. 

“Oh, yes,” he says automatically, and he loses the ability to speak as her face slides into a smirk. 

“Oh, fine,” she says. Jason opens his mouth to apologize, but she smiles and he forgets what he was going to say. 

“It’s fine,” she continues, breaking eye contact to tap several buttons on the register screen. “I don’t make commission.” 

He snorts. “I’ll mention you in my yelp review,” he glances at her name tag, “Reyna.” 

“Oh?” she raises an eyebrow again. 

“Five out of five stars,” he nods. 

“An excellent first trip, then,” Reyna says, pulling out a paper bag. 

“Well, the customer service was excellent,” he grins, watching her write something on the bag in sharpie. 

She rolls her eyes, but there’s still a trace of a smile on her face. She fluffs open the bag and places another bag inside, then starts adding his groceries. He isn’t sure, but he thinks she might be blushing. She meets his eyes again, and opens her mouth. 

“Would you like your receipt?” she says. 

Jason tries not to be disappointed. “Yes, please.” 

She tucks the receipt in the bag and pushes it across the counter towards him. He hesitates, watching her tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. He notices the other cashier Reyna was talking to before smirking at him from over Reyna’s shoulder, and blushes again. 

“Thanks,” he says, and picks up his groceries. 

He thinks about her all the way home. 

He should’ve asked her out, given her his number. And now he’ll probably never see her again, unless he starts stalking his local Trader Joe’s, which feels like pushing it. But some things aren’t meant to be, etcetera, etcetera. 

Still. She was really beautiful. Captivating. There was something regal in the way she carried herself, Hawaiian shirt and all.

He lets himself into his apartment and leaves the bag on the counter, taking off his jacket and shoes. He’s halfway through untying his other shoe when he remembers: Reyna had written something on the bag. 

He immediately rushes to the kitchen and spins the bag around. A smile splits his face. 

There’s a phone number written in neat letters on the bag. 

If he fist pumps a little bit in celebration, there’s no one around to see it. 

What happens next is, well, embarrassing. 

Jason drafts several dozen text messages that he never sends. The number of times his thumb hesitates over the call button makes him cringe. He doesn’t know what to say beyond introducing himself. He wants to impress her, but he’s realizing it’s incredibly difficult to impress someone in a text message, let alone a first text message. 

He agonizes over it for a week. Then, at some point, he remembers how embarrassing their first interaction was and realizes it’s probably too late to impress her.

He sends her a simple hello. 

Tuesday, 4:38 pm 

To: Reyna 

Hey! 

Five minutes later, he remembers to introduce himself. 

Tuesday, 4:44 pm 

To: Reyna 

It’s Jason, the dumb blond from Trader Joe’s😋

She hasn’t replied by the time he goes to bed, nor by the time he wakes up and gets ready for class and remembers he has to go grocery shopping. He doesn’t necessarily  _ have _ to go to Trader Joe’s, but it’s cheaper and he saw a bunch of stuff he wanted to try the last time he was there. Reyna still hasn’t responded, and he can’t decide if he wants her to be on shift when he goes. 

He tries not to feel too disappointed when he doesn’t see her there. He does, however, see the coworker she had been talking to and joins the line for her register. 

“Find everything okay?” she says. Her name tag reads “Hazel” in chunky block letters. 

“Yeah, thanks,” he says belatedly. 

“She isn’t working today,” Hazel says, and Jason blinks at her stupidly as he processes that sentence. 

“Am I that obvious?” he says finally. 

She laughs and scans his cereal. “No, I just happened to be paying attention.”

That’s a relief, at least. He doesn’t want to come across as desperate on top of constantly looking like an idiot. She scans the last of his groceries and he sticks his card in the chip reader. 

“She liked your opening text,” Hazel says. “Thought it was funny.” 

Jason looks up from the pin pad with raised eyebrows and just barely stops himself from saying  _ really? _

“Why are you telling me this?” he says instead, because he’s a complete and total stranger to both Hazel and Reyna. Not that he doesn’t appreciate Hazel for being a good wingwoman, but to them, he’s just some guy. They don’t know his last name, or the baggage that comes with it. There’s a chance that one of them made the connection between his name and face, but there are very few pictures of him out there in which he’s not a child. 

She shrugs. “Reyna wouldn’t give her number to just anyone. I’m trying to help you out here.” 

“Thank you,” he says sincerely. “Any advice for me?” 

“Do you like dogs?”

“Yeah?” 

“Then you should be fine. Like I said, she wouldn’t give her number to just anyone, so you already have that going for you. Receipt?”

“Yes. And thank you.” 

“She’ll text you,” Hazel says, sliding his bag across the counter to him. “Don’t worry.” 

He nods. “Thank you,” he repeats. He picks up his groceries and leaves. 

Reyna texts him back later that night. 

For their first date, they go to a nearby park and walk Reyna’s dogs, two retired racing greyhounds that would’ve otherwise been put down if she hadn’t rescued them. A half an hour into the walk, she hands him one of the leashes, and their hands brush against each other, and when she smiles, he smiles back. It feels like the beginning of something wonderful.

He finds out later that she saved his name in her phone as first name Jason, last name Dumb Blond TJ’s Guy.


End file.
